S Selvaganabathy and Sushmita Dev took oath of office in the presence of Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday. They were elected unopposed to the upper House from Puducherry and West Bengal, respectively, in September.
While Selvaganabathy took oath in Tamil, Dev did so in Bangla. Dev, who quit the Congress party in August, was nominated by the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Selvaganabathy is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) nominee to the upper House.
M Venkaiah Naidu appreciated the growing trend of newly elected members taking oath in their respective languages and giving prominence to regional languages during House proceedings.
Pralhad Joshi, parliamentary affairs minister, was present at the swearing-in ceremony, among several other ministers.